Weeks of planning and departure is in sight!

Believe it or not we have been planning this trip for nearly three years. Ernest and I decided that we needed to do one more major Africa trip before we get too old and can’t climb up the ladder anymore and we have just made it... We can climb up but getting down is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I am not so bad of course as I am 4 years younger than Ernest (famous last words) but oh boy Ernest is already saying he thinks we should just sleep inside. Who am I to disagree!

Anyway for the last year Ernest has been pouring over the maps.... Where to go and what new things to see. The trip started off as a Cape to London, then the Libyan war broke out and we couldn't get into Libyan and Tunisia to cross the Med to Italy, so we cut it down to Cape to Cairo!  Then the dam Egyptians started fighting so we cut it down to Cape to top of Kenya and then in the end thought why drive all the way to Cape Town from here when it is no longer Cape to London...

 Seemed a bit pointless. So the final plan is from Joburg to Turkana in Kenya.

The route has taken many hours to work out...poor Gigi has spent many a day re-typing the itinerary only to have it pulled apart by changes. The final straw was the Lamu debacle which we have now had to cut out of the trip. I think Ernest has hidden the final one from us so that nobody can change it again. The route has now been cast in stone and as I say it is a case of follow my leader or get lost in deepest darkest Africa. We will be going up as high as Lake Turkana which Ernest has been trying to get to for as long as we have been together and then we will start our long trek home.

Lisa Warwick and the kids will be joining us for a while in Malawi which is really exciting and we might even get a surprise visit from Tracy and Guy and the kids.

We originally had two other couples joining up, Marguerite and Paul and Willem and Gill, all old “partners in crime”  but unfortunately they were not able to come so we now have a party of seven going all the way through and 4 newbies starting off with us and retuning from Lusaka after two weeks. So our group is now Ernest (the undisputed leader) myself, Ken and Rouvierre Humphries and Kim Downing our brave followers, and Steve and Andria who we have dragged out of their busy life to come with. Steve can fix anything anywhere anytime and we would not even attempt to do this without him. The four that will be returning are Sonja and Kobus Botha from Cape Town and Fritz and Ronel our assistant managers at Safari lodge.

Ernest and I are the only two hardened Africa travelers some work cut out for us to teach these rookies about what it is like to travel through Africa.

Some people think we are mad and some are envious and would love to join us but to be honest we are a little crazy (just a little mind you). But then that is what life is about, you have to be a little crazy at times and as Ernest always say he loves flying by the seat of his pants.

The last 4 days have been a whirlwind of activity, I have been to the Supermarket so many times, I should have bought shares in Spar and Woolworths before I started. Every time I walked out with two trollies filled to the top and then packed it all into snapper boxes and then into the truck. My gosh,  I had no idea I could fit so much into that truck, it just seemed to be a bottomless pit. Anyway the pit is now full to capacity; I don't think I could fit one more tin of anything into the back. I kept saying to Ernest I think I have overloaded the whole thing but he has assured me that is not possible. It takes a lot of tins to make up 8 tons!

So we are now ready, the meat for 70 days is in, the condensed milk and coffee is in, the GPS is programmed, the Satellite phone is ready, not that I know the number at this point and we are ready to go.

 If I have forgotten anything it is just too bad or I will have to buy from one of the many little trading stores on the way. The ones that say " Mr Machaba's 24 Hour Store" and then underneath it says: "Open from 8 to 5"  or the “Sunrise Bar”  that sells everything from tooth paste to meat.

So we will be off tomorrow at 6am (hopefully if we can get this unruly bunch of brave souls together and working in unison)

 I will be writing about our adventures every two to three days and will send updates of our journey whenever I have an internet connection.